The purpose of this weekly blog (which is often derived from The Dennis Jernigan Podcast) is to help you find healing for your wounds; find hope in your despair; find intimacy in your loneliness; find refuge from the storms of life; Basically, to help you find a deeper walk with Jesus. There is one thing I know after having lived all these years: God wastes nothing. Not our sorrows. Not our wounds. Not even our failures.
What I would like to share today is the story behind my song, Rain Song, from the worship recording Let It Rain. This song came to me in the spring of 1981 or 1982. The story behind the song is very special to me and my prayer is that you would find it interesting and that it would inspire you to believe in the miraculous nature of God’s every-single-day-of-the-year love for us.
Rain Song was born during the time of my life when God was beginning the cleansing of my mind from all that I had believed about myself - of all the stinkin’ thinkin’ - especially concerning the lies about my sexuality that I had been ensnared in for so many years.
Sitting alone at a balcony window in my church at the time (Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Oklahoma City), I watched the spring rain pour down – never stopping – never leaving so much as a single spot untouched…and then it hit me – Jesus is our Living Water! We must allow Him complete freedom to flow through us and allow Him to touch every part of our heart and mind…especially the wounded, sin-burdened parts. He loves us so much!
After I wrote the song, I came down from the balcony and sat near the front of the sanctuary while pastor Jim White preached and taught the Word of God. He was so instrumental in the early days of my ministry. When the Lord would give me a song during one of his sermons, he would allow me to give him a signal - usually a whisper from behind the curtains on the stage - and would then creatively find a way to weave into his sermon that brother Dennis has been given a song from the Lord for us just this moment…and then he would invite me to the piano to share the song! Rain Song was one of those songs! I shared the song as it continued to rain outside and brother Jim continued his sermon when I was done…like it was perfectly normal. Amazing!
Another special treat for me was to have the trio I sang in after college, Spirit Song, get back together for the recording, Let It Rain. Thank you, Johnnie Ann (Adams) Burgess and Chuck King, for the gift of making music and for the countless hours upon hours spent worshiping together. This song always takes me to a place of peace and joy because of all you two amazing people did for me.
Even though I have heard the following scripture countless times, it stills brings chills to my soul. Part of the reason is that I still have moments of meeting Jesus at the ‘well’ of my heart to this day:
7 A woman of Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, "Give Me a drink." 8 For His disciples had gone away to the city to buy food. 9 So the Samaritan woman said to Him, "How [is it that] You, [though] You are a Jew, are asking me for a drink, [though] I am a Samaritan woman?" (For Jews do not associate with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus replied to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who is saying to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water." 11 She said to Him, "Sir, You have no bucket and the well is deep; where then do You get [this] living water? 12 "You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well and drank of it himself, and his sons and his cattle?" 13 Jesus answered and said to her, "Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never be thirsty; but the water that I will give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up to eternal life.” John 4:7-14 NASB
We have that mighty fountain of living water springing up within our very core identity. Let’s be intentional in taking daily drinks from this fountain…as often as necessary…and let’s be conduits that carry that same living water to the thirsty world around us. Just drink deeply today…
Dennis Jernigan
To hear The Dennis Jernigan Podcast episode version of this teaching, go to http://podcast.dennisjernigan.com/e/rain-song/
Photo courtesy of https://pixabay.com/